Shielded electrical connector assemblies are widely used in various applications such as telecommunications equipment, computers and the like. The electrical wiring in such applications often include electrical cables having a plurality of electrically conductive leads surrounded and protected by an electrically conductive shield, such as a braid, foil or the like. In most such connector assemblies, it is necessary to shield the signal-carrying circuits to avoid the reception or emission of electromagnetic interference caused by energy generated outside as well as inside the system.
Many such electrical connector assemblies are used in conjunction with systems which incorporate printed circuit boards to which the connectors are surface-mounted or with panels having apertures through which the connectors are mounted. Often, either the board or the panel have ground planes or plates to which the connectors are conductively coupled. The coupling usually is through the shield of the connector assemblies. One type of shielded electrical connector assembly is a jack which is "box" or rectangularly shaped and includes a rectangularly shaped dielectric housing having a front face and outside portions surrounding the front face covered by a stamped and formed metal shield.
One such application of shielded jacks is for receiving a pin-type coaxial plug insertable through a hole in the front of the metal shield and into a cavity or chamber within the dielectric housing. The coaxial plug has a plurality of radially insulated terminals which are exposed at a tip of the plug in a fashion to provide axially separated terminal sections. The dielectric housing of the jack mounts a plurality of pairs of movable contacts or terminals and fixed contacts or terminals, with the movable contacts being engageable by the terminal sections of an inserted plug. The terminal sections of the plug not only establish electrical connection with the movable contacts, but the plug moves the movable contacts away from the fixed contacts to effect contact switching functions. One of the problems with jacks of this type is to maintain or ensure good electrical contact between the movable and fixed contacts. The engaging surfaces of the contacts often become contaminated which deteriorates the effectiveness of the contact coupling therebetween. Attempts have been made to provide a wiping action between the engaging surfaces of the movable contacts and the fixed contacts to counteract such contamination. However, most such jack assemblies are extremely small due to the ever-increasing miniaturization of such connector assemblies. The compact envelope afforded by such miniature constructions leave little room for providing adequate wiping actions.
This invention is directed to solving those problems by providing a unique contact construction which provides an improved and more extensive wiping action between the movable and fixed contacts than has heretofore been available.